PTCruizer

We’ll be joining you on the Thanksgiving cruise.  Darling wife prefers to cruise this particular holiday instead of stressing out the large family gathering. We were on the second sailing of the Apex in Greece during COVID and with only 400 passengers it was amazing. 

On 11/9/2023 at 8:56 AM, Oldsweets said:

We use ur but we are not eligible for celebrity bookings with them because of being a customer of celebrity.  Have some good to great offers through ur showing on celebrity so took a chance and asked ur comped and they said a hard no.  Thanks for the kind suggestion though.

I've had three comped Celebrity cruises booked at the same time through Ken Froom. I currently have 2 booked for the remainder of this year. You may want to reach out to them. I've had great service with them for about 4 years now.

16 hours ago, abbydancer said:

I casually asked the staff if they could do a greek dinner, since I know they can do Indian or Philippine food so, since officers are Greek, maybe they can do that too.  It turns out they can and they did that for us tonight.

Well I wish I had known this on our cruise! It looks fabulous. 

Love reading your recap Abby. Brings back wonderful memories. We had a great time dining with you and Glen. I hope the second half of the cruise was as good as the first. 
 

Bob

Going to South America this week and would prefer not to lug around all the pill bottles. I would like to know if anyone has any real life experience with bringing your medications overseas in a pill organizer. I'm looking for actual experiences, not hypotheses, rumors and certainly not opinions. I know what I have read on the web but I would like to hear from someone who actually had a problem, or no problem, with this. Between my wife and I, we have 13 bottles of prescriptions.  Some of them rather large. All maintenance drugs, no narcotics, and nothing I consider controversial. I know that different countries have different opinions though. So, if anyone can share an actual story of being stopped, questioned or detained, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it. Thanks.

Have a great cruise Blerkone. We board in less than a month. Can’t wait. Were those shops you pictured in the cruise terminal? - Thanks. 

• Ship:  Infinity
• Length of Cruise: 12 Nights
• Cruise Sail Date: 3/11/23
• Date email offer received: 12/26/22
• Captain’s Club Tier: Elite Plus
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA:  Casino Rep/ BCC
• Current Cabin: Sky Suite
• Bid?  Yes/No: Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

• Cabin Category: Royal Suite & Celebrity Suite
• Bid Offer: $500 & $600
• Notification Date: N/A
• Accepted / Rejected: Pending

General Comments (offer details, etc.) 3 options available. 

Min/max bids:

Penthouse Suite  $2000

Royal Suite $500

Celebrity Suite $500

As of today, there is one Penthouse Suite and one Celebrity Suite available. 

Done both recently. AQ on Apex and SS on Reflection.  Loved Apex but the ability to hang out in Michaels and eat in Luminae make it an easy choice for us. Reflection. 

Oh No! I’m on the Solstice  next week.

When did you say you were cruising? 😜

1 hour ago, Momma Rene said:

Has anyone done the Reflection in a suite recently?  I thought since we are in a suite, Luminae would be less crowded than the main dining room.  The Reflection does not have a suite deck area.  I beginning to wonder if I am paying for something that will not occur.  It does look like there are a LOT of sky suites now available on our sailing in April.

We were in a sky suite on the Reflection over New Years Eve. Ate around 6:00 each night in Luminae and it was never full. Breakfast always had tables open as well. Spent a good bit of time in Michael’s Club and it was never busy in there. We enjoy the retreat deck on the Edge class but really like the intimate atmosphere of Michael’s better than the Retreat Lounge. 

2 hours ago, Host Anne said:

Michaels Club is still the dark woods (which I prefer) but that will change once they re-do the ship.

I agree Ann, we enjoy Michaels Club over he Retreat lounge. Please tell Cranston that Bob, Melissa and Jennifer miss him already.

7 hours ago, Corgi Girl said:

We just boarded and received a letter stating that on the prior cruise there more than1% tested positive for COVID-19.  Affected crew and guests were removed from the ship.  This cruise all are required to wear masks indoors.

 

Still planning to have a great trip!

Just off the Reflection. Captain only mentioned a total of 5 positive cases during the cruise. Not sure how there would have been greater than 1% and we would not have been told. Please share a scan of the letter you received. 

You can call Blue Chip and they can tell you what your tier score is. I'm actually having a problem with this very issue now. The tier credits from my June cruise on Apex have still not posted. I've made a dozen calls over the past 6 months trying to get this resolved but the points still don't show. It's baffling really. I was just on the Apex again over Thanksgiving and spoke with Sylvia, the host, and she told me that she has sent the information to Blue Chip numerous times. It's amazing how something so simple can be such an issue. I've pretty much given up hope of ever seeing those points. The points from my Thanksgiving cruise have already posted however. Go figure. 

NHCRUISIN, Pearl is the tier level with the casino. Like the Captains club, the casino has it's own tier system. You can ask the casino host Sylvia about it and she can give you all the information you need on Blue Chip Club. If you do, please tell her Bob and Melissa said hello.

Sorry to say the Apex does not have a coin pusher. 

We are on the Apex and just pulled into San Juan. We were instructed to change our clocks ahead one hour last night. 

14 hours ago, dazey said:

At some point she called over a casino "boss" and showed them her playing was not calculating correctly.

Interestingly, this happened on our cruise. I noticed that the tier credit counter was actually going backwards at one point. The slot tech explained that it had to do with the upload of data to the server and something about "lag time" while at sea. I didn't really buy it but after awhile I noticed a large jump in the tier credits so I figured he must have known what he was talking about. Now I wonder...

7 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

whats the formula for discretionary comps?

What % of my table play should i be expecting?

Wish I could help you with that one. They are very tight lipped about what goes into their secret sauce. I've heard that they look at the average bet, amount of time you play and even whether you win or lose. My formula is simple, I always take the amount of money the cruise would have cost me if I had paid for it and that's what I gamble. Most of the time, I'll make it through the cruise without losing it all. Once in awhile I'll even come out ahead. 🙂

Thanks for your replies. All very good suggestions. I did win a couple of hand pays so they do have those in the system. And, I always make it a point of meeting the host and spending time getting to know them. This cruise the host was Sylvia and we spoke every day. I know she had record of my play because we discussed discretionary comps on the final day of the cruise. If I had an email for her I would write her directly because I am sure she remembers me and my wife. There were very few regulars in the casino on that sailing.

If I have any resolution I will post what I find out.

I've been hesitant to post this because I wanted to give Celebrity ample opportunity to fix the problem. But seeing as though they haven't been able to, and won't communicate with me unless I call them, I thought I would see if anyone else has experienced this. I cruised on a third party casino offer on the Apex June 26th. We returned on July 3rd and two weeks later I called my TA to see if there were any other offers based on my play on the Apex. They informed me that they had not received notice of my play yet and they couldn't book another trip until they do. That's understandable, so I called BCC and asked about the record of my play from the Apex trip. They informed me that they had no record of me playing in the casino on the trip. I emphatically disagreed with them and asked them to please check with the ship to get this resolved. Long story short, It's been over a month since my first call with them and each time I call them, they act like they haven't heard of this problem. Each time, they promise to open an IT ticket to have it resolved within a few days and it never is. My call with them yesterday sounded promising since the BCC agent said she would send an urgent email to the head of casino operations, copying me, and that I should have a call from someone before the end of the day. Never saw an email and never received a call. My TA, has had no better luck on their end. 

Those of you that travel on Blue Chip Club offers know how important the record of play is. I'm convinced that they have lost the data and just won't tell me while they try to figure it out.  Celebrity is our favorite line and we've cruised a dozen or more times with them but I find this situation frustrating and I'm not sure where to turn now.

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Thanks.

6 hours ago, Steelydad2021 said:

Not saying the sculptures could be zombies Stephen King dreamed up from an Athens night club, not saying It

 

Bartender in Eden said it took three days to get over the feeling of being watched by this sculpture. Said it "freaked him the heck out".

Last cruise pre-covid on the Edge, the waitstaff in Luminae learned that my wife loved carpaccio for an appetizer. They subsequently brought her a plate every evening as soon as she arrived. Luminae was definitely the best overall dining we've had on any cruise.

On 7/8/2021 at 4:13 PM, Bruin Steve said:

and the 4x4 tour for Limassol..

Steve, we just did this on the second Apex sailing. My advice is to run, not walk, to your assigned Land Rover so you don’t get stuck sitting sideways in the back. Here is a photo of the vehicles. 

19 hours ago, sunni2315 said:

Hi @PTCruizer,

 

What night was the Chef's Table? In the Cruise Planner, it has it as embarkation day which is less than ideal.

 

Thank you for the great review! We are looking forward to this sailing!

The embarkation day is a placeholder for the actual day. Our day was on Monday night, Limassol port day.

On 7/6/2021 at 7:08 PM, hnm2234 said:

Did you stay on the ship for sunset or hang around the island? Thanks!

We decided to stay on the ship for the sunset. It was beautiful but I can't wonder what it would have looked like from the altitude of Santorini.

1 hour ago, dsgriggs said:

Regarding the PLF for Greece, did you do one per person, or one per family/couple?  it asks for travel companions/family, so just want to clarify.  Thanks!

It is one per family or traveling companion. And they were definitely wanting to see the QR code you are sent before you get to que up for immigration. 

11 hours ago, tyrannosaur said:

Hello PTCruizer, thanks for the great post and info!  2 questions please:

1. did Apex perform a second covid test prior to disembark?  if so, what day was the test performed?  I think someone mentioned about the second covid test prior to disembarkation, we might be able to use the test result to fly back to US same day without doing another covid test in Athens.

 

2. Do you remember what time was express walk off?  Not sure if catching a flight by 9 AM would be possible...

 

thanks in advance!

MMG3 Got it exactly correct.